Apple confirms iPod problem

Logix

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2001
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Apple confirms iPod problem

December 7, 2001, 12:30 p.m. PT

Apple Computer on Friday confirmed a glitch with its iPod digital music player that can lead some machines to remain in sleep mode when their batteries get low.

The Mac maker said it has identified the issue and posted a fix to its Web site.

"Apple has identified a bug that can cause a small percentage of iPods to temporarily not wake from sleep when the battery reaches a low charge level," the company said on its Web site.

Because there is no way to tell which players will have the problem, Apple "strongly recommends" that all iPod owners download and install the update...

The glitch is not the first related to the new device. Last month, Apple warned people with early copies of the device that software provided to install the related iTunes 2 software could, in some cases, delete files from their hard drive. Apple has since provided an updated version of that installer program.

The iPod, a portable music player that can store roughly 1,000 songs on its 5GB hard drive, was introduced in October.



How many of you guys own one of these? Are they selling very well?
 

Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
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Now if Apple would admit to the other glitch with the iPod they may sell a whole lot more. Some how accounting let a glitch slip by where by the MSRP for the unit was way too high.
 

MoleX

Senior member
Oct 12, 1999
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<< Now if Apple would admit to the other glitch with the iPod they may sell a whole lot more. Some how accounting let a glitch slip by where by the MSRP for the unit was way too high. >>



LOL
 

Magicthyse

Golden Member
Aug 15, 2001
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Now if Apple would admit to the other glitch with the iPod they may sell a whole lot more. Some how accounting let a glitch slip by where by the MSRP for the unit was way too high.

The same reason that a Mercedes isn't priced at the same level as a Hyundai? Apple products are for those who appreciate good design, and are prepared to pay for it.

Too many comments are posted by PC owners who've rarely owned a Mac, or let alone actually examined one 'in the flesh' and equate them with brain-dead, techno-illiterate designers (by the way, many of these brain-dead, illiterate designers clear way more than you - perhaps one of the reasons they can afford a Mac?). The attention to detail is immense, and I certainly appreciate the thought that goes into their products.


 

loosbrew

Golden Member
Oct 30, 2000
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you cant tell me youre comparing an apple to a mercedes? for f0cks sake man, get with the program.... mac owners always seem to need to justify thier overpriced machines. yes, they do perform the tasks asked, but that doesnt make them the cream of the crop!

loosbrew
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,954
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pariah: Well, there's a drive inside which is a Toshiba drive, and alone it costs US$399. So personally I think it's a good price to sell the iPod for US$399.

Magicthyse: Let's not go overboard here. I still don't see the justification for the prices for some of their stuff. Sure it looks good, but in truth the older Mac OSes simply sucked. Unstable and lousy multitaskers. Only when OS X came out did I buy my iBook. Sure OS 9 is better in some ways than Win 98, but Win 98 is actually better in others. OS 9 is far from the super-intuitive simple pleasure that many Mac-heads claim it is. I still dread booting into it. I think the reason most designers buy Macs is because they were trained on them, and much of the market previously was geared toward Mac. However, that is quickly changing. With 1.6 GHz Athlons running many Photoshop filters faster than 800 MHz G4 for much less cost, one can see why. Some of the Apple stuff is great, but quite frankly, I think a lot of it is overhyped.
 

NateSLC

Senior member
Feb 28, 2001
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<< pariah: Well, there's a drive inside which is a Toshiba drive, and alone it costs US$399. So personally I think it's a good price to sell the iPod for US$399. >>


Why in the world would Apple want to put a $399 5GB drive in to play 128kbs MP3s?
 

Sugadaddy

Banned
May 12, 2000
6,495
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<<

<< pariah: Well, there's a drive inside which is a Toshiba drive, and alone it costs US$399. So personally I think it's a good price to sell the iPod for US$399. >>


Why in the world would Apple want to put a $399 5GB drive in to play 128kbs MP3s?
>>




1. WTF does the MP3 bitrate have to do with the size of the hard drive?

2. It costs that much because it's tiny and very tough.

3. It also serves as a portable firewire hard drive, so 5GB is good. (5GB is probably what they get with a single platter, so less hard drive space would cost the same to make anyways)
 

Magicthyse

Golden Member
Aug 15, 2001
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And then there were those hockey puck mice... <sighs in disbelief>

Okay... I'll give you that :D
 

Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
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It was a joke folks, settle down. I've gotten a chance to mess around with one of these. It's a nice piece of equipment, but I'd be surprised if it didn't look like junk after a week or 2 of typical use. The unit is very scratch prone and will look pretty ugly after a little wear and tear. As for it's durability, you drop it more than a few inches and the thing will be shot just like any other hard drive based MP3 player, forget tough, you can't protect a hard drive very well in a pocket sized portable device..

"pariah: Well, there's a drive inside which is a Toshiba drive, and alone it costs US$399. So personally I think it's a good price to sell the iPod for US$399."

Don't know where you shop for hard drives, but you can buy a 48GB 5400RPM IBM Travelstar for $360. Sorry, but the iPod is overpriced for its capabilities any way you look at it, you're paying for the looks.
 

Sugadaddy

Banned
May 12, 2000
6,495
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<< It was a joke folks, settle down. I've gotten a chance to mess around with one of these. It's a nice piece of equipment, but I'd be surprised if it didn't look like junk after a week or 2 of typical use. The unit is very scratch prone and will look pretty ugly after a little wear and tear. As for it's durability, you drop it more than a few inches and the thing will be shot just like any other hard drive based MP3 player, forget tough, you can't protect a hard drive very well in a pocket sized portable device..

"pariah: Well, there's a drive inside which is a Toshiba drive, and alone it costs US$399. So personally I think it's a good price to sell the iPod for US$399."

Don't know where you shop for hard drives, but you can buy a 48GB 5400RPM IBM Travelstar for $360. Sorry, but the iPod is overpriced for its capabilities any way you look at it, you're paying for the looks.
>>




Sorry, but do you have any idea what HD they use? Here are the specs for the Toshiba HD they use. The thing is 5mm high, compared to 12.5mm for an IBM Travelstar 48GH.

It also weighs less than a third of what the Travelstar weighs, has a single platter for better resistance to shock, etc... It's NOT a notebook hard drive. Like the IBM microdrive, it's designed for small portable devices.
 

Gunbuster

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,852
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Its the same drive tosh. makes in a PCMCIA card format right?


<<Don't know where you shop for hard drives, but you can buy a 48GB 5400RPM IBM Travelstar for $360>>
The ipod is about the size of that drive, thats why they use the smaller one
 

Magicthyse

Golden Member
Aug 15, 2001
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Don't know where you shop for hard drives, but you can buy a 48GB 5400RPM IBM Travelstar for $360. Sorry, but the iPod is overpriced for its capabilities any way you look at it, you're paying for the looks.

Hmmm. Don't know where you shop, period, but my Travelstar drives - including the very same 48Gb unit I've just bought to fit in either my iBook or Vaio, haven't decided which yet - measures approx 70mm x 100mm x 10mm. The iPod measures approximately 60mm x 100mm x 20mm. The 5Gb Toshiba HDD unit is actually the same underlying unit as the one they sell as a PCMCIA card.. for, ooh, $399? :D

Don't comment without actually using it or seeing it. This is my main beef with all Machaters. Most fervent Mac haters have never owned (repeat, owned - not used) a Mac.






 

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
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iPod rocks, actually. Had a chance to play with one last week and loved it. But I won't purchase one until they fix these issues and release Windoze drivers for it. Sure, I could use it as a 5GB removeable drive for now, but that doesn't make sense.

$399 is a bit pricey, but keep in mind that I've seen portable units with 128MB of space selling for similiar (or higher) prices. 5GB isn't too shabby, all things considered.

And, FWIW, I'm far from an Apple maniac. I can't stand Macs, and the very sight of a Mac disgusts me. But iPod is really cool :D
 

Pariah

Elite Member
Apr 16, 2000
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"Sorry, but do you have any idea what HD they use? Here are the specs for the Toshiba HD they use. The thing is 5mm high, compared to 12.5mm for an IBM Travelstar 48GH."

I'm far more impressed with IBM's new 60GB 12.5mm drive than a 5mm high 5GB drive. A 5GB drive can be made quite a bit smaller than even that Toshiba if anyone cared to market one. I would hope you would be able to put a 4200RPM 5GB drive in a smaller form factor than a 60GB 5400RPM drive.

As for the price, I couldn't find it for sale anywhere. I don't care what Toshiba charges, if someone else besides them was selling them, they would be considerably cheaper.

"Don't comment without actually using it or seeing it. This is my main beef with all Machaters. Most fervent Mac haters have never owned (repeat, owned - not used) a Mac."

I don't see how not owning a mac has any bearing on my belief that the iPod which, I don't own either, but have used (it's an mp3 player, I don't need to own it) is overpriced. As I said, you're paying for looks which won't last long and Apple's name, which isn't worth nearly as much as Apple thinks it is.

As for where I shop. This mom and pop fly by night joint, Newegg, carries the IBM drive for $360.
 

NateSLC

Senior member
Feb 28, 2001
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<< 1. WTF does the MP3 bitrate have to do with the size of the hard drive? >>


The unit is marketed as an MP3 player. The small size is good, but not worth the $.



<< 2. It costs that much because it's tiny and very tough. >>


Very tough.. OK. I'll assume there is data that says so. As for the tiny, see above.



<< 3. It also serves as a portable firewire hard drive, so 5GB is good. (5GB is probably what they get with a single platter, so less hard drive space would cost the same to make anyways) >>


Maybe 5% who buy it will use it as such. Therefore, I still think it's over priced. All Apple technology is. That is why they have to style it that way, because there would be no market for them. I'm not saying the iPod is bad, it's just not 'all that'.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,954
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Actually, I would say many people buying it WOULD use it as a portable hard drive. Why? Because it negates the need to carry stuff around like zip drives etc, esp. with Macs which have no floppies. Actually for me, a floppy drive is fairly useless since much of the stuff I need to transfer is in the 2-3 MB range per file. A floppy just doesn't cut it. I carry a slimline zip drive specifically for this purpose, but if I had an iPod (with Windoze drivers) I'd get a firewire card for my PC and use it instead.

What I'm waiting for in an iPod is:

1) Bigger capacity (but not at the expense of bigger size)
2) Windoze drivers. (This may come in the form of a non-Apple product called Xpod.)

By the way, I encode all of my MP3z now with iTunes on my iBook, at 256 Kbps. It's by far the easiest setup I've ever used. It's easier to use than AudioCatalyst, and of course the quality is better since it's Fraunhofer not Xing. (I'd try LAME if only the software were more user friendly.) Hence, an MP3 player with say 128 MB would be almost useless for me. I'd say for a combo MP3 player/portable hard drive, 5 MB is a happy medium. I'd definitely pay more for a 15 GB drive though.

Oh and don't even bother mentioning the USB drives on the market, since they're too slooooooooooooowwwwwwww. Firewire is 400 MBit, or 4X the speed of 100BaseT. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for USB2, but right now that is not even a consideration, since it will be a while before the connector is available on laptops.
 

kylef

Golden Member
Jan 25, 2000
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<< This is my main beef with all Machaters. Most fervent Mac haters have never owned (repeat, owned - not used) a Mac. >>



How can you be serious? You now need to OWN something before you can criticize it? How lame!

That's what I can't stand about Mac-Lovers: they refuse to acknowledge the flaws of their precious "designer" systems. Rather than defending the systems, they attack the critics. After all, if a person doesn't like Apple's impeccably designed products, they must not really appreciate good design. Right.